


Secret Santa

by awgaskarth0805



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21862051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awgaskarth0805/pseuds/awgaskarth0805
Summary: The band decide to do a Secret Santa gift exchange, and Jack forgets to get Alex a gift.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Secret Santa

**Author's Note:**

> This is a request, and this is set when they were in high school!

“Guys, we should do the secret Santa thing now!” Zack exclaimed to his friends.   
It was the night of their last day of school for the semester, and they were celebrating by having a sleepover at Alex’s house. The four of them were in Alex’s basement, watching TV and drinking some wine that Alex had taken from his parents’ liquor cabinet. The four of them had decided to do a secret Santa gift exchange with each other, since none of them had the money to buy three gifts for everyone.  
“Good idea!” Alex replied. The four of them grabbed the gifts they’d gotten and put them in the middle of a circle they formed by sitting in it on the floor.  
“Okay, so who goes first?” Rian asked.  
“I’ll go!” Jack exclaimed, making his friends laugh some. Jack grabbed the present with his name on it, and quickly opened it up. He pulled out a Blink CD that he’d been wanting to get for a while.  
“No way! I’ve been wanting this forever!” Jack exclaimed.  
“Now you have to guess who got it for you,” Alex replied.  
“Well, I think I’m going to have to guess Rian!” Jack answered.  
“What? How’d you figure that out?” Rian asked, sounding a bit surprised.   
“Well, last time we went to the music store, I pointed out this DC and said I wanted it but didn’t have enough money at the time to buy it. Thanks, man,” Jack explained.  
“No problem. Alright, it’s my turn now,” Rian said, reaching for the bag with his name on it. Once he removed the paper, he found some really nice, high end drumsticks.  
“Woah, these are, like, some of the best sticks out there! I can’t even remember how long I’ve wanted these for! Are these from you, Alex?” Rian asked.  
“No, but that is a damn good gift, though,” Alex replied.  
“Hm, is it you, Zack?” Rian continued.  
“Sure is! I know you’ve been eyeing these for a bit now, and since the band is kind of a more serious thing now, I thought it would be good for you to have these,” Zack explained.  
“Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I can’t wait to try these things out!” Rian replied with a big smile.  
“It’s your turn, Zack!” Jack stated. Zack grabbed a large box with his name on it and tore off the wrapping paper. An excited expression appeared on his face when he saw what it was.  
“A new skateboard! I haven’t been able to ride in, like, three weeks, since my old one broke! This is fucking awesome! Now, I just have to figure out which one of you two this is from,” Zack stated as he started to think to himself.  
“I’m going to have to go with, um, Alex! We went to the skate store a few days ago, and I pointed this one out!” Zack exclaimed.  
“Yeah, it was me! I’m glad you like it, man,” Alex replied.  
“I can’t wait to ride this thing. This is one of the best boards ever!” Zack stated.  
“It’s your turn, Alex!” Rian said as Zack continued to read the side of his box that his board came in.  
“Well, since I’m the last one, I guess I know who my secret Santa is. Let’s see what’s in this,” Alex said with a big grin as he picked up a very small box off of the floor. Once he got the paper off, he opened the box to find a worn, green guitar pic.  
“Wow, an old guitar pic. This is, um, awesome, Jack,” Alex said, trying his best to hide his disappointment.  
“To be honest, I kind of forgot that we were doing this until today at lunch when we talked about it. I didn’t have the time or money to get you a real gift, so I decided on this. You’re always losing yours, and you love green, so it’s perfect!” Jack said, trying to sound excited. He knew that he messed up, but he hoped that Alex wouldn’t mind too much. It was just a gift exchange, Alex wouldn’t really care too much about this, right?  
“Yeah, I, uh, I guess that’s true. Thanks,” Alex replied, unable to mask a look of disappointment.   
“Jack, we gave each other, like, a month to get these gifts,” Rian said, seeing how upset Alex looked.  
“Hey, I just forgot, it’s not like I meant to,” Jack replied.  
“Jack, you should’ve-“ Zack started.  
“Guys, stop. It doesn’t matter, it’s just a dumb gift exchange, who gives a shit?” Alex said, cutting Zack off.  
“Alex, I’m sorry,” Jack tried.  
“No, it doesn’t matter. I’m fine. Let’s just keep watching what we had on before this. Zack, I’m glad that you like your board, I’m going to run to the bathroom really fast,” Alex said, getting up.   
Before anyone could say anything, Alex walked upstairs and to the bathroom down the hall. He shut the door and locked it, then sat on the floor against the wall. He took a deep breath as a few small tears escaped from his eyes.   
Normally, trivial things like this didn’t get to him, but this hurt him quite a bit. All of his friends had gotten really cool things that they’d been wanting that were a bit pricy, and he got one of Jack’s old pics. This led him to think that Jack didn’t care as much about their friendship as he did. Alex had always given Jack nice gifts, so this felt like a slap in the face to him.   
He felt very left out of the excitement that his friends had over what they got and continued to overthink the situation. Meanwhile, Jack, Zack and Rian were all still sitting on a circle on the floor in the basement.   
“Jack, you really fucked up on this one,” Zack started.  
“Yeah dude, how the hell did you forget about this?” Rian added.  
“Hey, chill out, I didn’t mean to forget about it. It’s literally just a stupid gift exchange, I can get him a real gift in a couple of days. I don’t see what the big deal is,” Jack defensively replied.   
“The big deal is that all three of us got things that we really wanted, and they were all super personnel, and there was a lot of thought that went into picking them. I’m sure that Alex feels a bit left out, because he didn’t get to experience that with us,” Rian explained.  
“Dude, it’s not that damn deep. I can get him whatever he wants in a couple of days. He should just move on and get over it for now,” Jack stated.  
“If this were flipped and he forgot to get you a gift for something like this, would you be able to just get over it?” Zack questioned. Before Jack could answer, Alex came back down the basement stairs.  
“Okay, back to our show,” Alex stated, taking his seat on the couch.  
“Do you want to turn on a movie instead? It’s getting kind of late, so it’d be nice to fall asleep to,” Rian suggested, looking at the clock and seeing that it was getting close to midnight.  
“I don’t care,” Alex said back. The other three got up and went to take their places on the pullout couch. Jack shut off the lights, then went in his spot by Alex.   
As soon as Jack got comfortable, Alex scooted away from him, hurting Jack’s feelings and making him realize just how upset Alex was. They ended up putting on Elf, and Rian and Zack fell asleep not too far into it. Once Jack knew the two of them were asleep, he looked over to Alex.  
“Can I have some water?” he asked.  
“You know where the cups are,” Alex stated, not looking away from the screen. Jack had felt a bit guilty, but now Alex’s attitude was starting to anger him.   
“Can you fucking drop this, man? when I get paid, we can go to the mall and I’ll get you whatever you want. For now, can you stop being a baby about this? Besides, it’s not like you have a gift for me,” Jack defended.  
“Jack, I want to show you something,” Alex said, getting up.  
“What do you-” Jack started.  
“Just follow me,” Alex said, cutting Jack off. Deciding to not argue, he got up and followed Alex out of the basement, and upstairs to his bedroom. Jack sat on Alex’s bed as Alex turned on the light and opened up a drawer on his desk. He dug around until he found an envelope with Jack’s name on it.  
“Alex, what’s-“ Jack began.  
“Just open it. I wasn’t going to give it to you until Christmas, partly because I didn’t want to make Rian and Zack jealous, and I wanted it to be more special,” Alex said, handing Jack the envelope and siting on the bed. Jack cautiously opened up the envelope and pulled out a folded piece of paper, and a smaller envelope. Jack opened up the paper first and read it.  
“A reservation for a hotel in DC for the week after Christmas? We’re going to DC? Why?” Jack asked.  
“Open up the other envelope and you’ll see,” Alex replied. Jack opened up the smaller envelope and pulled out two front row tickets to a Blink show that was going to happen there a couple days after Christmas, and his jaw dropped.  
“Holy shit, Alex, did you pay for this all yourself?” Jack asked.  
“Yeah, I did. When we met back in eighth grade, you told me that you wanted to drive down to DC to see Blink in concert, then spend a few days there to sightsee and shit. So, ever since you told me that, I would save part of my paychecks, so we could do just that. I decided to make it just the two of us, since we’re supposed to be the closest, and you turned me on to their music, and ultimately gave me the motivation to form a band,” Alex explained, looking down at his hands to try and hide the hurt that he was still feeling. Strong feelings of guilt ran through Jack.  
“Alex, man, I don’t know what to say,” Jack said, still processing everything.  
“Merry Christmas,” Alex said, his voice cracking some as another small tear started to form in his eyes. Jack saw Alex quickly try to wipe it away.  
“Alex, I’m so sorry. Like, I can’t express how sorry I am about this. I’m sorry for being stupid and forgetting,” Jack said, putting an arm around his friend.  
“I thought you just didn’t care, you know, about our friendship and stuff. I felt super left out since you guys all got cool stuff,” Alex admitted.  
“Alex, of course I care about our friendship. You’re my best friend, I might not have showed this tonight, but I promise that you really are. You’ve helped me so much in the years that we’ve known each other, and you coming into my life was one of the best things to ever happen to me. I feel like shit because of this, Alex, I really am so sorry. What can I do to make it up to you?” Jack asked. Alex took a deep breath before replying.  
“Maybe we can go to the mall sometime soon to grab lunch or something. I kind of feel like I overreacted some, though. I usually don’t care too much about material things, but I guess it just hurt because I did something special for you, and, well, yeah,” Alex replied.  
“You have every right to be upset, dude. This seriously means so much to me, and I can’t wait to go on this trip together. Think about what you want, and I’ll do it, no matter what it is. I really am so sorry, man. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, and I should’ve showed that better,” Jack said.  
“We can figure this out tomorrow. I’m glad you like your gift,” Alex said with a small smile.  
“I fucking love it, man. Hey, do you want to go back downstairs so we can get some sleep soon? We have a long day of shopping ahead of us tomorrow now,” Jack suggested, making them both smile some.  
“That sounds great,” Alex replied, as he led his friend back downstairs so they could rest up in preparation for their exciting, shopping filled day that was ahead of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is a request from my Tumblr, and my second holiday themed story! I have a couple more holiday requests as well as a Christmas story that I wrote last year that I forgot to post that will be going up next week! Also, I plan on posting tomorrow morning before I leave for the NP show, it'll most likely be around 6am EST, because I'm leaving at 7! I know this was a bit different from what I normally post, and I wanted to use this note to say, you guys can send in requests for whatever you want. Personally, I think I write sickfics decently which is why that's primarily what I post, but if you have an idea that doesn't fit that description, still send it in and I'll do my best with it!! I hope you all liked this story, and thank you for reading. Lots of love, Liv.


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